Team Herald
MARGAO: Chief Officer (CO) of the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) Manuel Barretto has issued a notice to the South Goa District Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) asking it to clear outstanding dues amounting to Rs 1.12 crore for the handling of garbage collection and disposal at SGPDA’s retail market, failing which it will stop offering waste management services.
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Presently, garbage from the retail market is collected by MMC at a fee of Rs 5,500 per day.
Incidentally, MMC had written to SGPDA in the past when the outstanding amount owed for collection of waste from the SGPDA’s markets was Rs 87 lakh. MMC had then written another letter when the outstanding dues had mounted to Rs 1,12,14,500. In the final notice, the CO reminded SGPDA’s Member Secretary that the retail market falls in the category of ‘bulk waste generator’, thus specifying that the Authority has to manage the waste as per Solid Waste Management (SWM) rules.
“It is seen that the waste generated in the SGPDA retail market is not effectively segregated before handing it over to the Municipal Council for its final disposal. As a result, the vendors there tend to dump their waste in the surrounding areas,” said the CO in the letter.
The CO added that the SGPDA has to collect the waste in a segregated manner to facilitate the civic body to collect the same.
The minutes of the inspection conducted by the South Goa District Collector and Magistrate on December 12, 2022, were also referred to by the CO in his notice. This was in connection to the findings of an inspection report that witnessed waste dumped around the SGPDA market and also untreated liquid waste flowing into the adjoining nullah in Margao.
